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White House says no determination yet on ‘Dreamer’ immigrants

The White House said Friday that the DACA program – Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals – remains under review, but the lack of action by President Trump on that issue has left some of his supporters openly frustrated, as they want to see an all out effort against illegal immigration.President Trump has broken his campaign promise to “immediately terminate” an Obama-era program to shield from deportation an estimated 750,000 immigrants who were brought here as children.Homeland Security John Kelly formally revoked a policy memo that created the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans programme.Established by then-President Barack Obama in 2014, DAPA offered deportation reprieves and working papers to undocumented parents of children who are either USA citizens or have legal residency here and who have lived in the United States for at least five years.DAPA was meant to protect parents whose children are American citizens or lawful permanent residents.However, the program remained in legal limbo after several states sued the government, saying that Obama had overstepped his constitutional authority and was illegally implementing “back-door amnesty”. The announcement is bittersweet for many undocumented families because it means that while some young people can continue to remain in the USA, their parents are not offered the same protection.The Trump administration will continue to allow reprieve for immigrants who illegally entered the U.S.as children.About a year ago, the Supreme Court deadlocked, 4-4 on a challenge to the Texas ruling.These protections were extended to Dreamers by the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. “DACA is a very, very hard subject for me”, Trump said in February.Homeland Security’s assistant secretary for public affairs, Jonathan Hoffman, the #Future of the DACA program continues to hang in the balance since it is still under review by the administration.The program does not give them residency status, but temporarily protects them from deportation and allows them to work legally.The DACA program impacts around 800,000 young immigrants in the United States.Continuation of the DACA program had won widespread praise from critics of Trump’s overall approach to immigration.Arrests of immigrants in the interior of the country have increased under the Trump administration, but deportations are slightly down as fewer people have been caught crossing the Mexican border into the United States illegally.During his campaign, Trump denounced the program by describing it as an illegal amnesty and vowed to withdraw it as soon has he assumes office.